Looter” As Framed by the Media
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PRIESMEYER, JESSICA LYNN, M.A. Katrina’s Aftermath: The New Orleans “Looter” as Framed by the Media. (2010) Directed by Dr. Gwen Hunnicutt. 81 pp. In the days following Hurricane Katrina, the media portrayed the people inside New Orleans as a threat rather than a population in need. It was looters, in particular, who were portrayed in this deviant light and they were well publicized in the media coverage in Katrina’s aftermath. However, sociological research is limited in terms of examining looting, especially in the wake of a disaster. This research explores how looters were socially constructed after Hurricane Katrina within three prominent US newspapers: The New York Times , The Washington Post and Chicago Tribune. This research addresses three questions. First, how have Hurricane Katrina looters been framed by the news media? Second, how have Hurricane Katrina looters been differentially framed by these three powerful continuum of voices? Lastly, were media frames of perceived Katrina looters instrumental in re-establishing social order? Based on a frame analysis of newspaper articles in The New York Times , The Washington Post and Chicago Tribune , four primary looting frames emerged: property crime, lawlessness, policing, and race. The extracted looting frames provide insight into how the media portrayed those who looted after Hurricane Katrina. The unfolding of the analysis told a unique sociological story by bringing the New Orleans looter to life. The underlying idea of the looter after Katrina took on an ill-famed or villainous tone. According to media reports, looters vandalized, ran wild among the city and required “tough policing” in order to contain their behavior. It was the media that served as a social force that helped create and move these ideas about looting. The portrayal of the looter in this light becomes of great importance in the moment after a disaster takes place: the moment in which society realizes that utter chaos has replaced the normal social order. It is at this time when people pull together and set aside their differences. However, this warm and fuzzy feeling of wanting to pull together as one does not sustain itself for long. After Katrina, it was the claims of looting that broke this romanticized feeling of social justice for all. Looting rumors at this time contribute to the re-establishment of social order or in another way, bring back old societal order. This is accomplished because looters are a way of establishing us (the good guys) and them (the bad guys) once again in a time in which all social order is for a moment lost. In other words, singling out the looter becomes a way to make sense of the chaos; brings back stratification; brings back something that is familiar and maybe even comforting to those that hold more power in society. Claims of looting were powerful in this way because it was based on the age old struggle between the “haves” and “have- nots.” KATRINA’S AFTERMATH: THE NEW ORLEANS “LOOTER” AS FRAMED BY THE MEDIA by Jessica Lynn Priesmeyer A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Greensboro 2010 Approved by ______________________________ Committee Chair To the victims of Hurricane Katrina. ii APPROVAL PAGE This thesis has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Committee Chair _________________________________ Committee Members _________________________________ _________________________________ ____________________________ Date of Acceptance by Committee ____________________________ Date of Final Oral Examination iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would first like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Gwen Hunnicutt who believed in me when I was unsure, whose guidance and support reached far beyond academics, and whom I greatly respect and look up to. I would also like to thank Dr. Steve Kroll-Smith for the opportunities he has presented to me, his keen insight and willingness to share and without whom this never would have been possible. I would like to thank Dr. Ken Allan for his enthusiasm, inspiration, and his ability to explain complex ideas clearly and simply. I want to thank my family for their continued support in my life. I am grateful for my parents, Andy and Vickie Priesmeyer, who have always believed in me, who taught me that anything is possible and to never give up. My sister, Catherine Priesmeyer, whose laughter and zest for life is contagious and for that I will always be appreciative. I would like to show my gratitude to Kristen Hefner whose advice and friendship I will always cherish. Finally, I want to thank Cameron Gibbs for his support and encouragement. Without him, this project would have been much more difficult. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1 II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE .........................................................................5 Disaster Research .........................................................................................6 Defining Disaster .............................................................................6 Types of Disaster .............................................................................8 Importance of Exploring Culture in Disasters ...............................12 Looting: What Do We Know? ...................................................................13 Looting Occurrences ......................................................................14 Disaster vs. Civil Disturbances .....................................................14 Media’s Portrayal of Katrina .....................................................................16 Images of Looting ..........................................................................16 Chaos and Race Relations ..............................................................17 Exaggerated Claims .......................................................................18 Conclusion .....................................................................................22 III. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................23 Method .......................................................................................................23 Research Procedure ....................................................................................27 Study Design ..................................................................................27 Sample............................................................................................30 Study Limitations ...........................................................................32 Conclusion .................................................................................................33 IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................................35 Looting Frames ..........................................................................................36 Property Crime ...............................................................................37 Lawlessness....................................................................................38 Policing ..........................................................................................41 Race................................................................................................42 Top Three Looting Frames Ranked By Newspaper ..................................44 The New York Times.....................................................................44 The Washington Post .....................................................................44 Chicago Tribune.............................................................................45 v The Arrival of Hurricane Katrina: Introduction of the Setting ...................46 The Main Character ....................................................................................48 The Looter as a Social Kind...........................................................48 Characterization of the Looter as Presented by the Media ............51 The “Bad Guys” in Action: Making Sense of the Extracted Looting Frames ............................................................52 Chaotic and Destructive Nature of the Looter (Lawlessness and Property Crime Frames).....................52 Zero Tolerance for Ruthless Looters (Policing Frame) ..............................................................54 The Elephant in the Room (Race Frame) ..........................55 When Looters Took Center Stage: A Unique Moment .............................58 What the Role of the Looter Accomplished: Initiating Recovery and Reinvention of Inequality ................................60 Why Claims of Looting Were Powerful: The Resolution .........................61 A Functionalist Approach ..............................................................61 Social Bonds and Boundaries ........................................................62 American Materialism and Legacy of Race ...................................63 V. CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................65 Study Limitations .......................................................................................67 Future Research Directions ........................................................................68